right, it has been published 15 reasons why Christmas is stupid and bad and should be stopped: youngvulgarian.substack.com/p/15-reasons...
Replies
I was groped by a Santa once and it was almost worth it for the metaphor.
dec 13, 2024, 10:05 am • 0 0 • view
So much that is right in what you say, but I felt sad reading this. Maybe there's a grain you can find and go with. Staying warm and eating lots, watching Die Hard (only because I like it), and buying something you can't normally justify...works for me. Everything else you mention can do one.
dec 13, 2024, 10:15 am • 1 0 • view
Oh yes, and actually reflecting on the birth of Jesus also works for me because of my faith - but that is probably 2-3 days out of the month.
dec 13, 2024, 10:15 am • 2 0 • view
My kids call me the Grinch because I can't get excited about Christmas from the 1st of December. They even bought me a Grinch hat last year. This year I'll wear it with pride.
dec 13, 2024, 1:10 pm • 6 0 • view
I also hate the constant push of alcohol (as an almost 8 year sober person here) and the addition of it to random things. I spotted some great chocolate puddings last year and thought the kids would love them. Nope, because in December there's brandy in the sauce. Sorry kids.
dec 13, 2024, 4:38 pm • 3 0 • view
Obviously the lotr full extended editions.....
dec 13, 2024, 4:20 pm • 0 0 • view
Once upon a time Christmas began with Christmas Eve and lasted until 6 January. That made sense. It even incorporates New Year.
dec 13, 2024, 10:31 am • 1 0 • view
Black Friday (which is not just on a Friday, as we know) has only added to all of this, unfortunately.
dec 13, 2024, 10:55 am • 0 0 • view
Oh, Marie!!!!😥😥 Those are all bad things about Christmas; but they don’t make Christmas bad.
dec 13, 2024, 10:07 am • 1 0 • view
there are no good things!!! all the things are bad!!
dec 13, 2024, 10:07 am • 2 0 • view
No. (Actually feeling the tears rising as I type: sorry. I meant to be light hearted and witty, but too many feels). Waking warm; lovingly doing breakfast for 2; opening lovely, thoughtful gifts, and feeling the joy of giving; dog walks; cold champagne; the BEST meal, your lover’s fave; Dr Who.1/
dec 13, 2024, 10:11 am • 4 0 • view
And (the reason for the tears) doing all that on your own after an untimely death, but hugging memories of 40 Christmases, delighted you did not Grinch them. Finding new ways to be, just you and the dog.2/
dec 13, 2024, 10:13 am • 4 0 • view
And I don’t mean to rain on your parade. It’s a clever piece, with proper criticism. Just - I dunno- LIGHTEN UP, willya! 😀😀
dec 13, 2024, 10:15 am • 2 0 • view
oh I'm so sorry to hear that xx
dec 13, 2024, 10:13 am • 0 0 • view
Thank you. I feel like a right cow, now. Sorry
dec 13, 2024, 10:16 am • 0 0 • view
no you're good! x
dec 13, 2024, 10:17 am • 0 0 • view
Point 5 is very true, and think shown by how long the return period is now after the holiday season. Grateful for my wife for proposing a secret Santa amongst the extended family, meaning money saved and everyone actually getting one thoughtful present
dec 13, 2024, 3:27 pm • 2 0 • view
I'll go halves with you on the £250 to stop the songs. And consider me completely sold on 10 and 13 (haven't been going home for Christmas in 3 years, absolutely no regrets).
dec 13, 2024, 10:04 am • 1 0 • view
You will be visited by three ghosts on the night of Christmas Eve.
dec 13, 2024, 2:58 pm • 0 0 • view
You are not alone!
dec 13, 2024, 2:02 pm • 2 0 • view
You're correct on every point, I disagree with you, and that was very entertaining. Thank you. And Merry Christmas.
dec 13, 2024, 1:42 pm • 3 0 • view
What a nice reply. ✅
dec 13, 2024, 2:03 pm • 1 0 • view
With the exception of the spiritual part of it ( because that’s important to me) I really can’t be bothered with it any more. You can opt out of a lot but yeah too much imposes itself on your life AND you feel like a meanie just for feeling af you do!
dec 13, 2024, 10:06 am • 4 0 • view
You are not wrong.
dec 13, 2024, 10:02 am • 1 0 • view
As a Catholic never understood atheists and others who don't belive in God celebrating Christmas.
dec 13, 2024, 1:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Lights, food, present. Yule is a pagan festivity "borrowed" by Xtians..
dec 13, 2024, 2:06 pm • 2 0 • view
Absolutely-obviously nothing to do with mr christ-more a mash up of roman saturnalia with norse & germanic midwinter festival
dec 13, 2024, 7:34 pm • 1 0 • view
As the graffiti in Dublin says, “Santy is a bad man”
dec 13, 2024, 9:48 am • 3 0 • view
Is the Good_or_Bad database GDPR compliant? Are the assessment criteria rigorous, and fuzzy enough, so the Bad list is at a minimum? Can we see the Data Protection Impact Assessment?
dec 13, 2024, 9:59 am • 3 0 • view
Lots to relate to here, even as a Christmas Enjoyer. And very funny. I snorted on several occasions.
dec 13, 2024, 2:03 pm • 1 0 • view
Halloween is doing a good stopping role on blocking it seeping into October though. What we need is a good none Christmas holiday around 15 December. I blame Guy Fawkes he should have tried to blow up parliament later. Although as the timing was driven by James 6/1 maybe I should blame him?
dec 13, 2024, 4:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Why are people saying they laughed out loud? This is an entirely serious and factual account of a terrible social scourge.
dec 13, 2024, 7:58 pm • 3 0 • view
I suggest you become obsessed with football. Christmas football is the highlight of the season....so much football and crucially, since you're now obsessed with it, you'll have to be out of the house to go watch it.
dec 13, 2024, 12:01 pm • 2 0 • view
Never visit the Philippines in Q4 if you are concerned about a November Christmas. You’ve got it easy!
dec 13, 2024, 11:11 am • 0 0 • view
"like a horde of cunt buffalos" Thank you. My life is improved by knowing this phrase.
dec 13, 2024, 8:45 pm • 1 0 • view
Excellent! A woman after my own heart.
dec 13, 2024, 9:57 am • 0 0 • view
I'm in my 60s, which means this peaked as an experience for me around 1969. Imagine the goddamn thing on repeat for over half a century. I fantasize about getting away from it somehow, but this turns out to be impossible in practice. Believe me, I have tried.
dec 13, 2024, 11:06 am • 1 0 • view
Oh yes to all except I do love mince pies. As for turkey, my mum never cooked turkey for Christmas dinner, we always had something special, and I've always done the same; goose is the best (and traditional).
dec 13, 2024, 11:19 am • 0 0 • view
Brilliant Marie. Hordes of cunt buffalo is magnificent. Merry christmas!
dec 13, 2024, 3:41 pm • 1 0 • view
Hahahaha - Agreed. Tho I’m now thinking about making pigsinblankets sandwiches, with some of the pickle mountain I’ll have. And we’re going to a Christmas market this afternoon!! Not my idea but I’m driving so at least I don’t have to drink any mulled wine 😁
dec 13, 2024, 10:30 am • 1 0 • view
I like roasts (and we can blame the Americans for turkey and cranberry sauce), but otherwise I agree. Winter is already horrible, so why do we have to stick a couple of months of the dreaded Designated Fun Time in the middle of it? I'd still like to have the days off, but I'd like to enjoy them.
dec 13, 2024, 10:29 am • 2 0 • view
It's Charles Dickens we have to blame for turkey no? Because he had scrooge (of all people) get one in a Christmas Carol? And the problem with cranberry sauce is it's always made too sweet in the shops. Make it yourself and it'll be tart
dec 13, 2024, 11:14 am • 0 0 • view
I think the working class bird of choice then was a Christmas goose. The reformed Scrooge was treating the Cratchits to something they wouldn't usually have been able to afford.
dec 13, 2024, 11:43 am • 0 0 • view
Which makes no sense to us now when a normal sized goose costs roughly double a massive turkey
dec 13, 2024, 12:20 pm • 1 0 • view
I love cranberries the year round: plonk in a pot, add a splash of water and just enough sugar to balance the tartness. Cook, eat with everything. I do the same with rhubarb. I used to buy "airelles" compote in Switzerland, like tiny cranberries, Yum!
dec 13, 2024, 1:58 pm • 1 0 • view
I concur. It’s very refreshing to hear that I’m not alone in hating Christmas. We’ll all breathe a huge sigh of relief on the 27th.
dec 13, 2024, 1:49 pm • 2 0 • view
Has anyone shared this with you yet? It seems appropriate. www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUl9...
dec 13, 2024, 3:18 pm • 1 0 • view
I’m in Asia (Singapore) and it’s the same here. Absolute plastic fake-fun garbage. Defund Christmas.
dec 13, 2024, 10:16 am • 3 0 • view
This one of the funniest things I have read this year - thanks!
dec 13, 2024, 2:11 pm • 1 0 • view
Describing festive drinkers as "a horde of cunt buffalos" 👏👏👏
dec 13, 2024, 11:17 am • 6 0 • view
Can describe most drinker on a UK Friday night....
dec 13, 2024, 1:42 pm • 0 0 • view
can't believe you've turned on me, personally, like this, with this extremely personal, to me, attack on me and my things
dec 13, 2024, 9:59 am • 6 0 • view
She might as well post about her long love of putting rabbits in pies
dec 13, 2024, 10:00 am • 2 0 • view
officially ranking her "anti-bun"
dec 13, 2024, 10:02 am • 1 0 • view
you personally are good but your things are bad, I'm sorry to say
dec 13, 2024, 10:03 am • 4 0 • view
The rare occasion of Marie having wrong and bad opinions. Christmas is the only good thing about winter. A time of overeating and day drinking for days on end to make the bad feelings go away
dec 13, 2024, 9:58 am • 2 0 • view
this specific point is addressed, I believe it's number 14 or around there?
dec 13, 2024, 10:02 am • 0 0 • view
Ok I did the thing where I read the entire post instead of glancing at it. (Still overall disagree) But as someone who’s worked at a university for the last 4 years, this seriously resonates. Undergraduates have absolutely no idea how pubs work and it drives me up the wall.
dec 13, 2024, 10:17 am • 3 0 • view
I wonder if it's partly that even if you DO know how a bar works, there is a pretty ingrained British habit re: queues and not pushing in. So if a queue has started to form, even if only 1 person, it has a kind of terrible ripple effect on everybody except the most socially confident / uncaring
dec 13, 2024, 10:45 am • 0 0 • view
120% accurate. Because I will seeth and groan and curse. Then politely manoeuvre myself to the back of the queue. However I still blame the undergrads as they’re younger than me and so must be at fault
dec 13, 2024, 10:47 am • 1 0 • view
Touché
dec 13, 2024, 10:06 am • 1 0 • view
I love Christmas a great deal, and I liked this piece very much. There is something about mediocre efforts and acceptance of said mediocre holidays that does not sit right with me. (this is why Christmas at my house is the very best.)
dec 13, 2024, 1:55 pm • 2 0 • view
agree to do secret santa for adults & you only have to pretend to like 1 present. changed my life.
dec 13, 2024, 2:09 pm • 3 0 • view
altho i suggested to one friend & apparently that sparked a huge family row when she suggested so...
dec 13, 2024, 2:12 pm • 1 0 • view
yeah I'm personally not going near that, but happy that it works for some!
dec 13, 2024, 2:14 pm • 2 0 • view
The only good Christmas food is the cheese. Huge quantities of blue cheeses sufficient to keep me in a fortnight of lurid and peculiar dreams. With wine. Lots.
dec 13, 2024, 10:07 am • 1 0 • view
Big fan of "cunt buffalos".
dec 13, 2024, 10:44 am • 4 0 • view
my sentiments exactly
dec 13, 2024, 10:29 am • 1 0 • view
The worst bit about Christmas is the actual Christmas Day, the build up is the best bit up to and including Christmas Eve, go out a bit more, work seems happier place. Agree it’s shouldn’t start till December though.
dec 13, 2024, 6:50 pm • 0 0 • view
😫
dec 14, 2024, 1:50 pm • 0 0 • view
Good list. Though another reason you should wholeheartedly commit to football. On 11 I think this is a specifically London problem (exception of NYE). And reminiscent of ending up in London by accident when the rugby union is on.
dec 13, 2024, 1:04 pm • 2 0 • view
I was very bah humbug about Christmas my whole adult life until I joined a choir. Singing beautiful carols to a packed congregation at St Albans Cathedral, as we will tomorrow, fills me with such joy. It's a Christmas miracle!
dec 13, 2024, 5:00 pm • 4 1 • view
Dear Ebenezer, about your attitude towards the season of goodwill …. 😉
dec 14, 2024, 7:00 pm • 0 0 • view
Ebenezer was right.
jan 12, 2025, 10:16 am • 1 0 • view
Now this is the war on christmas that Bill O'reilley promised me!
dec 14, 2024, 12:17 am • 0 0 • view
We should bring back the old pagan solstice festival. Celebrate the days starting to get longer and the Sun rising a little higher with each passing day, with the implied promise that Spring is coming, and Summer after that.
dec 13, 2024, 9:05 pm • 2 0 • view
You missed no public transport on xmas day (my personal bugbear).
dec 13, 2024, 5:58 pm • 1 0 • view
So I don't hate Christmas at all (but it has no religious/familial significance given family background, so I'm probably just mess polarised either way on it) But I will say reading this piece has made me feel upbeat about volunteering for the Christmas day on-call* at work this year 😂
dec 13, 2024, 11:28 am • 2 0 • view
Christmas is 40 days long, and begins on Christmas Day until Candlemas. The period beforehand is Advent from Advent Sunday on the Nov/Dec border, when corporate Christmas & consumption is celebrated, or more traditionally preparation and a bit like Lent.
dec 13, 2024, 11:34 am • 0 0 • view
*less polarised, damn autocorrect
dec 13, 2024, 11:31 am • 1 0 • view
"we should create fake pop-up pubs for them to drink in every December so they don’t have to inconvenience the rest of us" We do! Those weird German markets where you can stand in -2 degrees numb hands and an £11 glass of warm wine
dec 13, 2024, 10:21 am • 2 0 • view
this is addressed in the piece
dec 13, 2024, 10:22 am • 0 0 • view
Sorry in advance for for unsolicited advice but why don't you just invent your own traditions, eat what you want, agree only on certain categories of present, go for an annual Boxing Day walk up a mountain, etc etc. I tried to make Christmas Eve tacos a thing one year
dec 13, 2024, 10:28 am • 2 0 • view
I'm having tacos on the 25th, fuck all the other shite.
dec 13, 2024, 4:30 pm • 0 0 • view
Hard to disagree with any of that really! Apart from chestnuts, nothing wrong with chestnuts! In the Cévennes we're practically weaned on them!
dec 13, 2024, 4:24 pm • 5 0 • view
Although Thanksgiving means more turkey, it's one thing Americans do right - acts as a firewall blocking the encroachment of Christmas into November. Aus/NZ Christmas was odd - much nicer weather, but none of the Christmas stuff (trees etc) adapted to the climate, so felt very out of place.
dec 13, 2024, 4:14 pm • 1 0 • view
You are definitely right about pubs at Christmas. It’s even worse New Year’s Eve, which is why I don’t bother any more.
dec 13, 2024, 9:54 am • 3 0 • view
This is glorious. Suddenly realised I never go to the pub in Dec, I minimise gifts as much as possible (thank God for Secret Santa) and never watch the films. But the F—ing songs are impossible to escape.
dec 13, 2024, 11:37 am • 2 0 • view
You are very correct.
dec 13, 2024, 11:20 am • 2 0 • view
You should move to the US. Christmas is basically non-existent here compared to the UK. Even Thanksgiving barely registers. Halloween, which I dislike, is, by far, the biggest holiday!
dec 13, 2024, 8:15 pm • 2 0 • view
Every year, US supermarket executives must go to the UK at Christmas (and Easter) and think, why, oh why, can't we get people in the US to buy into Christmas like they do in the UK!
dec 13, 2024, 8:16 pm • 1 0 • view
The thing is I like a lot of Christmas stuff, mince pies, Christmas sandwiches, the time off, nouveaux puddings, "Doctor Who". I wish we had them here
dec 13, 2024, 8:18 pm • 2 0 • view
Seasonal drinkers, rural edition: "It's a shame the village pub closed, we need to drive 5 miles now, and someone needs to not drink." Well, maybe if you popped in more than once or twice each year, your village pub might still be there?
dec 13, 2024, 10:49 am • 3 0 • view
Profoundly grateful to be from Scotland where bread sauce is Not A Thing.
dec 13, 2024, 11:41 am • 0 0 • view
If you don't like pubs or trains at Christmas, do not take the rolling, swaying lock-in that is the after-work Christmas Eve inter-city to Liverpool.
dec 13, 2024, 1:48 pm • 1 0 • view
Do you have a view on TV channels dedicated to airing Christmas material 24/7 from October? 😁
dec 13, 2024, 9:53 am • 2 0 • view
Don’t forget the Christmas channels, showing Christmas movies all year. …
dec 13, 2024, 1:23 pm • 0 0 • view
dec 13, 2024, 4:57 pm • 0 0 • view
Oh wow, so much of this, I feel seen. Except 13. I love the beginning of January as I can do not very much - but crucially, on my terms, and spending some time outside. The relief of Christmas being over!
dec 13, 2024, 9:57 am • 1 0 • view
This is why Trump got re-elected by the way.
dec 13, 2024, 11:19 am • 0 0 • view
My son’s gf put their tree up on Nov 1st. He had to negotiate that. She would have put it up in September. In our house no mention is allowed until Dec 1, we don’t give presents, not a Christmas dinner. We simply decompress and spend time together over the break. No faux jollification.
dec 13, 2024, 12:23 pm • 2 0 • view
I like your household.
dec 13, 2024, 4:28 pm • 1 0 • view
Spot on, especially about Christmas drinkers. Wrong about cranberry sauce
dec 13, 2024, 11:43 am • 0 0 • view
Christmas should last between 24th December and 5th January.
dec 13, 2024, 9:31 pm • 1 0 • view
You said “we should create fake pop-up pubs for them to drink in every December so they don’t have to inconvenience the rest of us.” Isn't that what the Christmas Markets are for? Fill the town with shitty shed shops that sell bad booze for bozos?
dec 13, 2024, 12:16 pm • 3 0 • view
don't forget wurst
dec 13, 2024, 1:08 pm • 0 0 • view
Agree with nearly all of these - as a Christmas liker this has made me wonder why i like it. I think possibly nostalgia plays a large part. Also its a chance to see some friends from home I don't see as often
dec 13, 2024, 10:20 am • 1 0 • view
Thank you! At last someone willing to speak out against this ridiculousnesses. I recommend holidaying somewhere where Christmas isn’t a thing. Pizza with friends in Tokyo was the most enjoyable Christmas Day I’ve spent since the millennium. There are some great Xmas songs though which I enjoy.
dec 13, 2024, 1:48 pm • 3 0 • view
Without having to fly so far, I recommend a skiing trip. In my experience, the nonsense only lasts a couple of hours on xmas day when there's skiing to be done.
dec 13, 2024, 2:12 pm • 1 0 • view
Never tried skiing. The snow aspect rather puts me off. I accept that Asia is a long way to go, but I have friends and family there.
dec 13, 2024, 4:49 pm • 2 0 • view
That's a good enough reason, especially if they don't celebrate Christmas
dec 13, 2024, 11:36 pm • 0 0 • view
British Christmas dinner is actually pretty great, and this is a hill I'm willing to die on. After years of Carn d'olla (the soup is actually okay but the meat has the flavour boiled out of it as part of the process) I'm rebelling and cooking a British dinner for my Catalan family this year.
dec 13, 2024, 10:00 am • 3 0 • view
The only worse Xmas dinner than a UK one that I have had was "Jigg's Dinner" in Northern Newfoundland, which looks similar to that. I love Spain, but so much of their food is fried, brown, or homogenous. You are alone on that hill with a sniper, and a red dot has just appeared on your chest... 😜
dec 13, 2024, 10:14 am • 3 0 • view
Mileage may vary. Pubs, for example, tend to make a poor showing with soggy everything, but my family always did Xmas dinner very well with homemade Yorkshire puddings (at least part of OUR traditions), non-dry turkey and perfectly steamed veg. Most food here is great, but carn d'olla is a letdown.
dec 13, 2024, 10:21 am • 2 0 • view
In Barcelona and Madrid you can, at least, get a range of decent ethnic food. Try and get Thai or Vietnamese food in Bilbao or Sevilla! Living in Sevilla meant eating well and cheaply por la calle, but missing a whole palette of food unless you cook it yourself. There's more to life than Croquetas!
dec 13, 2024, 10:26 am • 2 0 • view
I completely agree, but when you marry into a traditional Catalan family this can prove difficult when it comes to Christmas dinner. 😉 I'm slowly getting my father-in-law into Asian cuisine. It'll happen eventually.
dec 13, 2024, 10:31 am • 2 0 • view
P.s. if you're ever around here and haven't already, try one of the Cal Blay restaurants around Sant Sadurni (Origens is particularly good). They do a take on local food which is to die for and you're almost guaranteed good cava in the area.
dec 13, 2024, 10:38 am • 2 0 • view
Oh @sevillatapas.bsky.social I see you are needed here.
dec 13, 2024, 12:18 pm • 1 0 • view
I’ve done a tour with Shawn some years ago! We are lucky in London to have a wide range of food. You really have to go to Lavapies in Madrid to find something similar en España.
dec 13, 2024, 12:50 pm • 3 0 • view
John is correct that it's nigh on impossible to find proper Asian food in Sevilla (can't speak for Bilbao) but I disagree that living in Sevilla means eating well and cheaply por la calle (though you can). The food scene here is much more complex - and delicious - than that. When were you here John?
dec 13, 2024, 7:13 pm • 2 0 • view
Hemos pasado seis meses en los últimos seis años, por ejemplo desde agosto hasta diciembre el año pasado cuando estaba estudiando (como estudiante muy antiguo) en la US. Claro hay muchos restaurantes de categoría, Palo Cortao queda muy importante para nosotros, pero falta la heterogeneidad que se…
dec 13, 2024, 9:23 pm • 0 0 • view
halla en otros países. Me chifla Sevilla y regresaremos cada año. Sin embargo la comida puede ser más variada…
dec 13, 2024, 9:34 pm • 0 0 • view
Current ads, yes. This was not always the case (I'm not sure what the year zero for awful was). youtu.be/1m_0ENIw4os?...
dec 13, 2024, 10:08 am • 0 0 • view
I'm Jewish and used to be fine with Christmas and then I had a kid and Christmas became a VERY aggressive part of the never-ending attempt to convert non-Christians, and it's inescapable. Every TV show has a Christmas episode and there's no warning it's coming, everywhere has Christmas displays etc
dec 13, 2024, 11:30 am • 5 0 • view
I'm assuming you don't live in the UK. Christmas exists in almost entirely non-religious way here, Jesus only gets the vaguest of mentions even in kids nativity plays.
dec 13, 2024, 12:03 pm • 3 0 • view
I don't, no. But that's the exact issue — it's not presented as religious even though it is, it just makes kids want to participate because it's omnipresent, and there's presents*, and Norman Rockwell-esque TV episodes, and a million other things. * Yes, of course we do presents for Chanukah
dec 13, 2024, 12:09 pm • 1 0 • view
If you're in a predominantly Christian country then you're going to have to expect that the culture will reflect that I'm afraid. Part of parenting is explaining to your children why you may do things differently to others.
dec 13, 2024, 12:15 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm not suggesting it shouldn't be allowed, I just find it personally annoying
dec 13, 2024, 12:24 pm • 1 0 • view
Only four steps from "Christmas is stupid and bad and should be stopped" to Christmas is fine, actually, it's merely an expected reflection of predominantly Christian culture lolololololol What a journey
dec 14, 2024, 1:04 pm • 0 0 • view
The only thing they want to convert you to is spending ever more money
dec 13, 2024, 1:08 pm • 1 0 • view
That part is working
dec 13, 2024, 1:11 pm • 1 0 • view
Don't forget also the "war on Christmas" that made it so "you can't say Merry Christmas anymore," which doesn't exist and isn't true and never has been
dec 13, 2024, 11:32 am • 4 0 • view
I think maybe the problem with cranberry sauce is that the British ruined it, rather than that it is intrinsically bad? There are many great renditions in the US, but uk versions are at best mediocre (see also, less seasonally: chunky salsa)
dec 13, 2024, 10:01 am • 3 0 • view
You are absolutely right about LOTR.
dec 13, 2024, 2:19 pm • 1 0 • view
My son, sister & mother have birthdays in December and now my partner as well, so I try and fail to ignore Xmas till last one, but getting birthday cards and non Xmas wrapping paper is tricky, plus the cheer required for the entire month is exhausting.
dec 13, 2024, 9:56 am • 1 0 • view
We did this too. My and my brother’s birthdays are both next week. As kids we kept the decs down till they were done. As a parent it became ‘get the decs up for Dad’s birthday’. It’s a lousy time to have a birthday, you can’t get a table for a meal, your stingier relatives give you ‘joint’ pressies.
dec 13, 2024, 10:00 am • 2 0 • view
Complete with you on this. We had a no dec rule till son's birthday, new partners is much closer to Christmas and much harder to enforce...
dec 13, 2024, 10:16 am • 1 0 • view
Now the kids have gone we put the decs up on the last Saturday before Xmas. I like the Xmas break but the 6 week build up gets me down.
dec 13, 2024, 10:19 am • 1 0 • view
Thank you for points 5-6 about presents, exactly what I have been saying for years but you put it much better. For the past few years we've only done presents for under-18s. I'm happy to get birthday presents ONE AT A TIME for adults but the multiple exchanges at Christmas are madness.
dec 14, 2024, 6:04 pm • 1 0 • view
Gave up Christmas long ago. Told everyone no presents will be given and prefer not to get even a card. It's bloody lush.
dec 13, 2024, 10:05 am • 0 0 • view
My lovely friend literally copied me into one of this year's xmas ads with glowing praise... can one divorce a friend?
dec 13, 2024, 2:10 pm • 1 0 • view
youtu.be/ew6rVcL3Up8?...
dec 13, 2024, 9:54 am • 0 0 • view
This! Every word!
dec 13, 2024, 6:49 pm • 0 0 • view
So much truth! My first thought for the pop-up pubs for the cunt buffaloes was “Christmas Markets” - my eyes continue reading and it is the next point made 🤣
dec 13, 2024, 10:09 am • 12 0 • view
And when they aren’t ’Christmas-themed’ ads, they’re bloody perfume ads.
dec 13, 2024, 10:33 am • 4 0 • view
The perfume ads istg are a Russian plot to undo our minds. If I see one more woman screaming at the sky for no godly reason I may go FULL THARN.
dec 13, 2024, 10:43 am • 4 0 • view
And these bloody celebs that I’m supposed to recognise but don’t…
dec 13, 2024, 10:46 am • 0 0 • view
I only just found out one of the screaming women is Dua Lipa. I still wouldn't recognise her in a line-up, unless she actually brought the eagle with her.
dec 13, 2024, 10:55 am • 4 0 • view
They're absolutely batshit. Natalie Portman leaves her wedding and gets into a helicopter. Or slaps someone in the face. Or buries herself in flowers. Johnny Depp buries a necklace in the desert before playing the riff from "Wild Thing". Then calmly walks away before being eaten by wolves.
dec 13, 2024, 11:00 am • 4 0 • view
And the perfume is always awful. Not to mention overpriced and hideously packaged. One of the worst I've come across this yuletide is called 'Good Girl'! - marketed for women not female dogs. Imagine a male aftershave being called 'Good Boy. 🥴😂
dec 14, 2024, 3:20 pm • 2 0 • view
…with the smell of wet dog.
dec 15, 2024, 8:44 am • 1 0 • view
The rest of my family loves it. All of it. And I feel such a heel for hating the effin' insincerity of it all. (And the spend, I have to admit!)
dec 13, 2024, 1:12 pm • 5 0 • view
I reserve my real utter hatred for the "fəstive" word. Which can do one, and then do one all over again. We now have three trees in our house. Three.
dec 13, 2024, 1:14 pm • 3 0 • view
@youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com has made me feel almost human again. As if I might once more be part of society. No mean feat, at this time of year! 😃
dec 13, 2024, 1:16 pm • 4 0 • view
Why do people put trees in houses?
dec 13, 2024, 1:17 pm • 1 0 • view
You've got Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's husband) to thank for that.
dec 13, 2024, 2:16 pm • 1 0 • view
He and Victoria popularised the idea of having a tree inside the house and decorating it. Queen Charlotte, German wife of King George III introduced the Christmas tree to Britain in around 1800. German tradition to decorate the tree apparently.
dec 13, 2024, 2:23 pm • 0 0 • view
You forgot to mention the birth of Christ. I mean we’ve all got the idea by now. Grownup people don’t like to hear the same story over and over again.
dec 13, 2024, 2:17 pm • 0 0 • view
I don’t mind most of Christmas. However I’ve cooked Christmas Dinner (beef nowadays) every year for most of the last 30 years. Asked how I’ll feel if my sons eventually go to girlfriends’ for Christmas I reply that I’ll be on a beach in the Maldives with a glass of fizz so I’ll likely be fine.
dec 13, 2024, 11:26 am • 3 0 • view
“Agreed - 100%. Make it start at *Christmas* not Advent” pleads #CTBear “these are the same nutters that take their decorations down on Boxing Day because they’re ‘bored’ of Christmas.”
dec 13, 2024, 10:47 am • 0 0 • view
Markets hard agree, the rest forgedabouteet
dec 13, 2024, 6:12 pm • 0 0 • view
I wish Christmas would only happen once every four years, like leap years
dec 14, 2024, 1:49 am • 0 0 • view
I think most Christians would agree with almost everything here
dec 13, 2024, 12:56 pm • 3 0 • view
“Cunt buffaloes” is just such a perfect description.
dec 13, 2024, 10:05 am • 1 0 • view
Family, Friends and Neighbours see me as a right curmudgeon at Christmas. It's all an act really, I love it - our routine is steeped in those from my past. Do you know how hard it is to find proper rose and lemon Turkish Delight? Final found some in Iceland/Food Warehouse. I've stockpiled.
dec 13, 2024, 11:00 am • 0 0 • view
Just couple of comments: British Christmas food is much better than Polish - it is absolutely disgusting. The only good thing - poppyseed cake - I’m now not allowed to have. Great. Also, being a shift worker makes a great excuse not to spend a lot of money to travel for Christmas, instead get it
dec 13, 2024, 12:21 pm • 1 0 • view
sorted before. As a bonus, I can also earn a lot of £££, while helping out others who are more keen on spending this time somewhere else!
dec 13, 2024, 12:21 pm • 0 0 • view
I don’t disagree with most of this, although I do still like Christmas overall. It does come to mind that you’re a fellow birthday around the festive season person, which I think also fuels some resentment
dec 13, 2024, 10:04 am • 2 0 • view
weirdly I'm fine with that though! think the Dec 29 birthday breaks up the merrineum, it's nice!
dec 13, 2024, 10:06 am • 2 0 • view
Interesting. I’ve seen other people mention birthday as well. For me no Christmas until after my dad’s on Nov 28, and Christmas is supposed to last until Jan 6. I can’t with people who put their decorations up in Nov and take them down on Boxing Day
dec 13, 2024, 10:09 am • 3 0 • view
You've had me rolling with laughter! I agree with every point. I also hate Christmas and everything about this month (arguably even longer) of enforced 'fun'. You missed off Christmas decorations. Some lights look nice on a house, but our estate flashes all night like a bad rave on acid.
dec 13, 2024, 10:16 am • 1 0 • view
Oh and "Over 16% of the year is now Christmas-themed." is so true. Drives me insane!
dec 13, 2024, 10:17 am • 1 0 • view
"The vast, crushing majority of Christmas food cannot easily be turned into, say, a sandwich." Hard disagree here tho. A sandwich stuffed to overflowing with slices of goose, chestnut stuffing, PORK stuffing, bread sauce (yes) all slathered in hot english mustard is the best sandwich you'll ever eat
dec 13, 2024, 10:37 am • 16 1 • view
Day 2 of Christmas sandwich discourse calls for a turtle dove sandwich
dec 13, 2024, 10:53 am • 7 0 • view
the original turducken was made by stuffing a turtle dove with a dunnock and then stuffing the dunnock with bracken
dec 13, 2024, 11:07 am • 0 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/numb...
dec 13, 2024, 12:20 pm • 3 2 • view
ew ew ew ew
dec 13, 2024, 10:37 am • 0 0 • view
And just when you've got past that, it's...wait for it....BURNS NIGHT. Which is the food used, post-death, to both reward Good Scots and punish French people who sinned unforgivably
dec 13, 2024, 10:40 am • 1 0 • view
this is the correct take. Christmas lunch sandwiches are magnificent.
dec 13, 2024, 10:42 am • 4 0 • view
My father would get a turkey the size of an emu, and we would be having turkey sandwiches and turkey curry until Easter. And I was never all that fussed about turkey in the first place
dec 13, 2024, 10:56 am • 2 0 • view
a turkey the size of an emu is a small turkey these days!
dec 13, 2024, 10:58 am • 2 0 • view
!!!! Answer : be Jewish & buy large capon instead ,( chicken terrible things have been done to..)
dec 13, 2024, 11:40 am • 3 0 • view
Sophie Grigson's Salmon Jalousie (Evening Standard I think - still have the cutting) has been our Christmas Day 'turkey' for 30 years - much nicer
dec 13, 2024, 11:04 am • 1 0 • view
weirdly, I agree with nearly all of this* but I still love Christmas The festive drinkers stuff, tho? PREACH. *not the trees bit, I like the trees, and the prospect of sitting around in a dressing gown doing nothing but reading newly-acquired books for days on end makes me hyperventilate with joy
dec 13, 2024, 10:34 am • 5 0 • view
yeah I think that really is the crux of it, I HATE being indoors and doing nothing all day so ultimately Christmas will never be good for me
dec 13, 2024, 10:35 am • 4 0 • view
Usually by mid-afternoon I get the feeling that I really need to go out a DO something
dec 13, 2024, 11:56 am • 1 0 • view
yes that's when you open the sherry
dec 13, 2024, 11:57 am • 1 0 • view
nah, I get that, and the weather here is RUBBISH. I can see it being festive and amazing if it was three food deep snow and bright sunshine like something out of LSD Narnia but london rain is a serotonin thief
dec 13, 2024, 10:38 am • 3 0 • view
I'm finding myself really badly affected by the weather this year. It really is horrible, and I don't think it's unusually bad or anything. But I hate it.
dec 13, 2024, 10:56 am • 1 0 • view
Same!!
dec 13, 2024, 11:04 am • 0 0 • view
My Postman said "I swear it's getting darker early than it did in previous years"
dec 13, 2024, 11:36 am • 0 0 • view
I've thought this, but it can't be... can it?
dec 13, 2024, 2:21 pm • 0 0 • view
Given that most of my Xmas holidays since forever are traditionally spent weathering some lurgy (flu/covid/colds/nausea bug) sitting around the tree doing nothing has to happen. I usually relax and get floored by bugs around the 24th
dec 13, 2024, 1:41 pm • 0 0 • view
And I agree with 99% I want mulled wine, a curry, Muppets Xmas Carol (the only good film), and then skiing or a warm beach. UK xmas = bad weather, boring food, disappointing presents, awful TV, and forced cheerfulness. There is no perfect xmas in your own home once your children are over 16.
dec 13, 2024, 10:20 am • 3 0 • view
You realise the British weather would happen anyway, right?
dec 13, 2024, 10:38 am • 1 0 • view
which is why I want to be somewhere Hotter (Australia - done twice) or Colder (Canada once, Wyoming 3 times), or at least just in a different house (5 or 6 times).
dec 13, 2024, 10:43 am • 2 0 • view
100% with you on the amateur Christmas drinkers. (But not on Christmas pudding. I love those. As a kid I saved one for my birthday. In May. Very normal behaviour by me, yes).
dec 13, 2024, 11:13 am • 3 0 • view
Agree with most, especially the Cranberry sauce which is an American invention and a recent aberration on British plates - bread sauce is the proper accompaniment and is delicious if done right
dec 13, 2024, 10:02 am • 0 0 • view
Sorry. Christmas is fab. The one day of the year when the world stops and you get to spend quality time with your family.
dec 13, 2024, 7:33 pm • 1 0 • view
One day I'm going to write a substack post about how the Lord of the Rings movies bore me to fat salty tears, then you'll be sorry.
dec 13, 2024, 3:54 pm • 9 1 • view
I was at Tolkein’s alma mater, Oxford, from 1973 to 1977. My teachers’ advised me “if they ask you what you’ve been reading, whatever you do, don’t say “Lord of the Rings”. They thought Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast Trilogy was a safe bet.
dec 13, 2024, 4:03 pm • 0 0 • view
Mikey what!!! amazing to think you can know someone for a decade and never realise that they don't have a soul, but clearly it can happen
dec 13, 2024, 3:59 pm • 11 0 • view
Pffffft. Countering this uber-Grinchy post with some proper *Christmas spirit* 🎄!!!! (I’m dangerously close to being blocked, aren’t I 😅)
dec 13, 2024, 10:16 am • 4 0 • view
Ulrike this is addressed in the post, Christmas trees are boring, I'm sorry, they all look the same
dec 13, 2024, 10:17 am • 3 0 • view
As a biologist, I would like to push back against this heartless homogenisation of living creatures. Each Christmas tree is an individual with a long varied life story. 🌲🎄 OK, so each one's life story ends with "and then someone tore them away and let them slowly perish indoors"..
dec 13, 2024, 10:23 am • 7 0 • view
That’s why the Swabians have a tradition called Christbaumloben. They basically bribe their neighbours to praise their tree with schnapps. Yes, this is real.
dec 13, 2024, 2:11 pm • 2 0 • view
Okokokkk. But hear me out, this one Christmas ornament we MUST be able to agree on! I mean look at him!
dec 13, 2024, 10:22 am • 6 0 • view
10/10 bulldog but would recommend more dense ornamation. Bulldog looks lonely
dec 13, 2024, 11:50 am • 0 0 • view
no I will never surrender
dec 13, 2024, 10:23 am • 7 0 • view
If an English bulldog with a glittery Union Jack jersey doesn’t do the trick, I am defeated.
dec 13, 2024, 10:28 am • 5 0 • view
I agree with this on almost every point. The exception I take issue with is the word terrorism. While I grant you that Christmas is celebrated too long and overly commercialized, I think calling it terrorism is a bit much. :)
dec 13, 2024, 8:35 pm • 0 0 • view
I love christmas and yet I identify with much of what you rail against here. I actually laughed out loud at the turkey thing. I mean it can taste OK but usually it's shit, ages to cook and costs a small fortune.
dec 13, 2024, 2:29 pm • 1 0 • view
You're so wrong about mince pies tho.
dec 13, 2024, 2:30 pm • 0 0 • view
I quite like Christmas food, although I share your contempt for cranberry sauce. Otherwise, I agree with your list. (As I started to read through it, I was concerned you might have overlooked Christmas movies. Would have been much higher on mine).
dec 13, 2024, 11:26 am • 2 0 • view
I walked into a grocery store the other day to a giant sign ‘count down to the big day’. I thought FFS they do realise people (mainly women expected to cook) are probably already dreading it and that’s your greeting?!
dec 14, 2024, 12:12 am • 1 0 • view
(I used to have a policy of leaving the country to avoid the whole thing but stopped bc you just transfer yourself to the same crap away from home, albeit minus potential arguments with relatives )
dec 14, 2024, 12:15 am • 0 0 • view
Really enjoyed this thank you
dec 13, 2024, 10:05 am • 1 0 • view
Counterpoint that doesn't undermine any of yours: Christmas is a good holiday because it's one of the few times of year when everyone is on holiday at the same time, so people don't ring me when I'm on holiday
dec 13, 2024, 11:35 am • 21 0 • view
That and the food are what make Christmas by far and away the best holiday.
dec 13, 2024, 12:14 pm • 4 0 • view
Would prefer it goes back to a one-day religious banger of a festival like in Spain, then back to normal. But can we keep the twinkly lightly please.
dec 13, 2024, 10:06 am • 2 0 • view
People are saying Christmas is getting earlier each year earlier each year.
dec 13, 2024, 10:57 am • 0 0 • view
Mitigation 1: Stay away from the UK’s four legacy terrestrial TV channels from mid-November till New Year:
dec 14, 2024, 12:56 pm • 1 0 • view
You should pitch it to Fox News for their annual war on Christmas bit
dec 13, 2024, 10:15 am • 0 0 • view
Re festive drinkers: always seemed such a no brainier to me that if they stay out of our pubs in December we’ll stay out of their gyms in January. I’m keeping to my side of this imagined bargain.
dec 13, 2024, 11:13 am • 0 0 • view
Can we do the other way around? I detest January gym penitents... Worse time to go to the gym (perhaps, as mine is a Uni gym, as bad as "new students invasion" in October)
dec 13, 2024, 2:03 pm • 0 0 • view
So I think plenty of things have been correctly called out as making Christmas worse rather than better - the shit films, the shit music, the shit people in the pubs, the shit they sell in markets made to look like an alpine village plonked in the centre of urban Birmingham Victoria square
dec 13, 2024, 12:36 pm • 0 0 • view
However the food I take issue with. Yes, people fuck it entirely. Yes feasting all day isn't for everyone. Turkey only took off as far as I can tell because it's cheap and massive and inoffensive to bores. Cranberry sauce is made to be like an acidic raspberry jam in most outlets
dec 13, 2024, 12:36 pm • 0 0 • view
However! It's the only meal of the year that English people remember they have any culinary heritage. There are spices used here since long before we even knew what a chilli was! Goosefat is far superior to olive oil for most winter dishes! Bread sauce a superior béchamel!
dec 13, 2024, 12:36 pm • 0 0 • view
The best thing about Thanksgiving in America isn't the holiday itself. It is that it provides a solid block of late November before which "Christmas" cannot spread
dec 13, 2024, 6:42 pm • 26 0 • view
Plus it avoids the domestic rows each December when couples have to decide whose family to go visit on XMas Day.
dec 13, 2024, 7:14 pm • 0 0 • view
👍
dec 13, 2024, 6:44 pm • 5 0 • view
From our few years in the US that’s exactly what we liked about it. Along with being welcomed to join new friends for it. Surprisingly not that commercialised too. (Then, anyway).
dec 13, 2024, 7:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Except that Christmas spreads out into January and, in some cases, onto Candlemas.
dec 13, 2024, 6:59 pm • 0 0 • view
Christmas is supposed to last into January! Its the pre Christmas period that's been extended that's the problem!
dec 13, 2024, 7:04 pm • 0 0 • view
Genuinely unironically love turning on the side light at 9am, feels all cosy and like I’m in a Dickensian novel
dec 13, 2024, 10:17 am • 1 0 • view
you're a freak and you should be locked in prison hope this helps
dec 13, 2024, 10:18 am • 2 0 • view
Sorry can’t hear you over my Christmas playlist as I decorate the tree
dec 13, 2024, 10:22 am • 0 0 • view
ew
dec 13, 2024, 10:23 am • 1 0 • view
the only thing I disagree with is the turkey, learn to cook, dont just put it in an oven on full blast and dry it out. learn to cook it slow, with a lot of liquid, so it effectively steams and stays lovely tender.
dec 14, 2024, 1:38 pm • 0 0 • view
the reason we dont eat it a lot the rest of the year, is that its massive....
dec 14, 2024, 1:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Completely agree with the unnecessary length of time and scooping up of thanks giving and Black Friday nonsense too.
dec 14, 2024, 1:28 pm • 1 0 • view
All together now! youtu.be/IJPc7esgvsA?...
dec 13, 2024, 3:33 pm • 0 0 • view
Totally onboard with these sentiments and my birthday is on Christmas Day. I try every year to get in the “Christmas mood”, but I just can’t stand it.
dec 13, 2024, 11:58 am • 2 0 • view
Hang on. In my experience a French person's idea of a 'normal meal time' is '3 hours after everyone else thinks is normal', which also lines up with Christmas meal times, so surely this should be a plus for you?
dec 13, 2024, 10:33 am • 0 0 • view
like a horde of cunt buffalos, lovely phrase
dec 13, 2024, 1:02 pm • 3 0 • view
You had me at "santa shaggers"
dec 13, 2024, 11:14 am • 3 0 • view
If "Cunt Buffalo" isn't in the Oxford English by this time next year I'm blowing the place sky high
dec 13, 2024, 4:35 pm • 2 0 • view
At least you can blot out around 12 hours of that down time with those most Christmas of all movies, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, extended as far as humanly possible. Right with you there. 🧙
dec 13, 2024, 11:42 am • 4 0 • view
Bravo! 👏
dec 13, 2024, 10:08 am • 1 0 • view
Bold week to suggest good foods are those which can be turned into a sandwich
dec 13, 2024, 12:31 pm • 1 0 • view
Kemi definitely disagrees.
dec 13, 2024, 2:02 pm • 1 0 • view
👏👏👏
dec 13, 2024, 1:07 pm • 0 0 • view
Finally someone gets me!
dec 13, 2024, 10:24 am • 1 0 • view
Years ago my wife and had a stove fitted (I know). This was in September so it was still too warm to use but I thought it would be fun to test it. I popped into a local garden centre (already crammed with Xmas tat) and asked if they had firewood to be told… ‘bit early in the year for that mate’.
dec 13, 2024, 1:17 pm • 0 0 • view
I haven't celebrated Christmas Day for years after my family decided on a ban. Its fantastic, stress free & cheap. After a while all the festive advertising and events become unnoticeable as you trot through December 😂
dec 13, 2024, 1:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Thanks, I'll read it at Christmas.
dec 13, 2024, 1:15 pm • 0 0 • view
So it should be stopped because you think it's stupid 🤣🤣
dec 13, 2024, 10:46 am • 0 0 • view
How about the countries where the fod is better & there's no Christmas songs?
dec 13, 2024, 11:50 am • 0 0 • view
"Horde of cunt buffalo" is harsh but undeniably fair
dec 13, 2024, 2:47 pm • 3 0 • view
I have signed up to your substack on the basis of this article. If it does not make me rubbed my mittened hands together in sour delight, I shall cancel my subscription and recoup the value in lollies stolen from small children.
dec 13, 2024, 2:04 pm • 1 0 • view
The only good thing about Christmas was Fairytale of New York and even that has been taken from us, for understandable reasons.
dec 13, 2024, 9:57 am • 0 0 • view
"Santa Shagger", thank you for that
dec 13, 2024, 9:55 am • 1 0 • view
As someone who spent the first three decades of her life hating Christmas but not being allowed to let on because people get funny when Jews say that… THANK YOU. Every word of this. Every. Damn. Word. ((With the caveat that it’s nice that the kids like it, and I guess there’s magic in that?))
dec 13, 2024, 5:52 pm • 15 0 • view
“Santa shaggers” thanks I hate it
dec 13, 2024, 6:17 pm • 1 0 • view
The one about feeling left out hit particularly hard. I always felt like for a month the whole world was fixated on something that I had no part of. Being alone on Christmas Day with no plans is depressing as hell. Again, it’s different when kids are involved. But it’s just a very isolating feeling
dec 13, 2024, 6:03 pm • 11 0 • view
Aka “Oh, Puh-leeze Navidad”?
dec 13, 2024, 11:59 am • 0 0 • view
I relate to so very much of this. But if I could remove, was allowed to remove, just one element, it would be every single Christmas pop song. The ones I’ve heard at least a million times now, and never sodding liked when they first came out. God, I hate them do much. It really is torture.
dec 13, 2024, 11:14 am • 4 0 • view
I think worse than Christmas songs are new Christmas songs. Without prejudice, the 70s were clearly a glorious time for the genre and the 80s had some notable additions. Mariah Carey in 1994 was the last decent one. Everything since, by the genre's own standards, is a weak imitation.
dec 13, 2024, 11:51 am • 0 0 • view
The pubs!!! Barry Glendinning (not sure he is on here) did a really good thread on this on Twitter / X. The most egregious crime being "ordering Guinness last".
dec 13, 2024, 1:27 pm • 4 0 • view
+1 on the boudin blanc
dec 13, 2024, 10:38 am • 1 0 • view
why don't we have it here!!! with a nice compote de pommes!
dec 13, 2024, 10:39 am • 1 0 • view
I have learnt something today, well two things. The first is that boudin blanc exists (yeah, yeah, I know and I don't have a good answer). The second is that I want boudin blanc, stat!
dec 13, 2024, 1:55 pm • 2 0 • view
I’ll never understand. Tried to explain to some Brits last night that in my Walloon family, we do boudin, compote, a lot of foi gras, salmon, champagne etc for Christmas. Maximum gout foots basically. No one could get past the lack of Turkey.
dec 13, 2024, 10:42 am • 3 0 • view
Yes that's the ideal meal!!
dec 13, 2024, 10:48 am • 1 0 • view
I'm afraid a mere sausage will never be as impressive as a massive roasted bird. However agree on the turkey (it should be goose)
dec 13, 2024, 11:11 am • 0 0 • view
I will also kill for a real buche de noel
dec 13, 2024, 10:43 am • 2 0 • view
I had Christmas in France in 1989 (same year that Ceaușescu's reign was abruptly terminated) and it was horrible. Just wrong.
dec 13, 2024, 11:06 am • 0 0 • view
Funny, I agree with almost all of this and yet I love Christmas. That could be because I tend to treat it as a low-key contemplative holiday as opposed to ‘party season’. And as a vegetarian (there, I said it) I can avoid all the turkey nonsense.
dec 13, 2024, 10:30 am • 1 0 • view
Honestly this is why Christianity is great, you get to have a high minded moral reason for not tuning into Christmas until maybe the 20th
dec 13, 2024, 10:07 am • 8 0 • view
I have to say that being Christian adjacent these days (and apparently trad cath in my tastes) carol concerts are a really nice bit of Christmas, because most of the tunes aren't rubbish and often quite dark
dec 13, 2024, 10:09 am • 5 0 • view
Same. Raised CofE, don't really believe any more but wish I did. Tree + other decorations didn't go up in our house until the last Sunday in advent. Carols were a big part of Christmas. Also parlour games - I normally hate games but my otherwise po-faced relatives did these well #LordOfMisrule
dec 13, 2024, 10:38 am • 1 0 • view
And being the Christian you’re adjacent to, apart from carols, which are nice, I’m Team Le Conte because all the Christmas culture is A Lot and quite annoying (fully agree re pop songs and Die Hard discourse)
dec 13, 2024, 7:05 pm • 3 0 • view
One thing that must be considered too is work Christmas dos. Has anyone has a good one?
dec 13, 2024, 7:07 pm • 3 0 • view
The fact is that if you add 'Christmas' to any event then it's somehow socially acceptable for it to be completely shite
dec 13, 2024, 7:09 pm • 6 0 • view
It’s a reasonable hypothesis
dec 13, 2024, 7:38 pm • 1 0 • view
Once, ever. And that was mostly because of one person, whom I had never met before as we worked on different days. All good? Not really. Life-changing? Definitely. Coups de foudre will do that.
dec 13, 2024, 7:23 pm • 2 0 • view
You can fuck right off with your bread sauce bad mouthing. It's the one thing that makes Christmas dinner bearable. I'd have it accompanying every meal alongside Yorkshire puddings
dec 13, 2024, 1:16 pm • 3 0 • view
You need horseradish. Best sauce ever.
dec 13, 2024, 7:36 pm • 0 0 • view
Not big on Christmas but I don't begrudge anyone else taking it on, going over the top & enjoying it. For small children it can be a magical time. What I dislike now is creeping in of calling it "holidays", it isn't, its Christmas! (Other celebrations available, they shouldn't be rebranded either)
dec 13, 2024, 6:56 pm • 2 0 • view
I'm definitely going to be using the seasonal phrase, "Santa shaggers"
dec 13, 2024, 9:55 am • 1 0 • view
So, very entertaining article. Individually I agree with most points on the list, yet inexplicably perhaps, I love Christmas despite it. So my question is this: without being able to fundamentally change it all (which won't happen), what do you think would help you enjoy it and not feel left out?
dec 13, 2024, 11:27 am • 0 0 • view
But It's A Wonderful Life you might like, it's really only tangentially christmassy, and Jimmy Stewart is adorable in it
dec 13, 2024, 8:01 pm • 0 0 • view
I know right? All that time off work, the lovely food, the giving of gifts, the time with your family, the look on your children’s faces on Xmas morning. Nightmare….
dec 13, 2024, 9:58 am • 0 0 • view
That was amazing, thanks. You want a hand with the tidying up, or are you all set?
dec 13, 2024, 10:49 am • 1 0 • view
This is so cathartic! In my office, there is a day every year where people are encouraged to wear a ‘Christmas jumper’, and this is somehow positioned as ‘fun’ and also ‘for charity’. Luckily I don’t go to the office very often, but even just knowing this is happening is reliably infuriating.
dec 13, 2024, 11:26 am • 4 0 • view
I play the religion card between September and January, works like a treat as I hate all that shit.
dec 13, 2024, 4:25 pm • 0 0 • view
Just the mention makes me angry. Being a child of the ‘70s, I find knitwear in general a little disturbing, but idea of a quirky sweater that you wear one day a year pretty much symbolises everything that is bad in the world to me.
dec 13, 2024, 1:58 pm • 2 0 • view
It’s worse than that though! These aren’t high quality items people wear year after year - they’re mostly yet more single-use seasonal tat bound for landfill. I was once sent one (unsolicited) as ‘swag’ that was so egregiously polyester cats I know rejected it as bedding/general shredding material.
dec 13, 2024, 2:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh totally - it’s like all the Hallowe’en tat in supermarkets; wear for a few hours, throw away.
dec 13, 2024, 4:46 pm • 0 0 • view